Improvement in railway rails



JAMES A; wooDB'URY.

Improvement in Railway-Rails.

Patented March 5, 1872.

STATES JAMES A. WOODBURY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILWAY RAILS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 124,240, dated March 5, 1872.

Specification describing Improvements in Railroad Rails, invented by JAMES A. Woon- BURY, of Boston, county of Suffolk, State of Massachusetts.

My invention consists of a railroad rail havinga ground tread, as described hereafter, so that the said tread will present such a smooth and uniform surface as to prevent the shocks and jars which have a destructive effect on the rolling stock of railways furnished with ordinary rails.

In carrying out my invention I employ an ordinary steel rail, or a steel rail hardened on the tread, or a rail of wrought-iron with a steel tread. Whichever of these rails I adopt, I render the tread perfectly smooth and straight by the process of grinding; and this process may be carried into effect by causing the rail to traverse in a straight course while its tread is in contact with a revolving grinder, or arevolving grinder may be caused to traverse in ways and in contact with the surface of the tread.

In the accompanying drawing, a a a a represent a series of rollers, which support the rail A; and B, a revolving grindstone, which, as the rail is carried in the direction of the arrow, imparts the desired character to the tread. It will be apparent, however, that machines differing in general and detailed construction, and all equally efficient, may be adopted 5 appropriate machinery, in fact, will readily suggest itself to any skillful engineer. The Want of smoothness and uniformity in railroad rails is a fruitful source ofthe rapid wear and tear of the rolling stock, and, as all inequalities are removed from the tread by the grinding of the same, my improved rails must tend to diminish the necessity of costly repairs wherever such rails are adopted. I prefer, in carrying out my invention, to use either the steel rails with hardened treads, for which I applied for Letters Patent on or about the 4th day of September, 1871, or rails with wroughtiron bodies and steel treads, hardened, as described in an application for a patent which I am about to make. It will be understood that in grinding the treads of the rails very little of the metal is removed, the rails in the first instance being straightened, so that the vulcanite emery-wheel, which I prefer to use as a grinder, has no more duty to perform than to simply smooth the tread.

I claim as my invention, and as an improved manufacture- A railroad rail having a ground tread, as 

